No meteors flashed across the northern skies on October 24,
1830, no stars imploded, the planets stood fast in their orbits, and
the sun and the moon remained constant. But on that day, a baby
was born who would grow to lead an extraordinary life that would have a
lasting and profound impact on the face of the legal profession and of
American society generally.

She was born into a non-extraordinary farm family in Royalton,
NY. Her parents, Lewis J. and Hannah Greene Bennett, named her
Belva Ann. She was the second daughter and second of five children.

Early education struggles

As with most farm children at the time, life was hard and Belva
attended country schools when she was not needed for farm work.
Belva was a curious and a good student. At age fourteen she was
offered a teaching position by the local school board and, thus, ended
her formal education. In Lockport, she had her first taste of
independence and her first taste of sex discrimination. As a
female, she was paid less than half the salary paid to her male
counterparts for exactly the same work and for no other reason that she
was a woman. She protested this inequity as “…an indignity not to
be borne…” and throughout her life, she seized every opportunity to
advance the principle that “equal pay should be for work, commensurate
to it, and not be based on sex.”

Belva had a natural curiosity about all things and yearned to continue
her education. However, she discovered that the colleges of the
country were closed to women and, in any event, her father said “No.”
He didn’t think education for a girl was important.

For the moment, she took the only road open to her at that time:
marriage. On Nov. 8, 1848, at the age of 18, Belva Ann Bennett
was married to Uriah McNall, age 22. They settled a few miles
north of their families near the village of Gasport where they farmed
and ran a mill.

Marriage did not dampen her enthusiasm to pursue her learning.
Again, in her words, “Marriage to the ordinary woman is the end of her
personality, or of her individual thought and action. Forever
after, she is known by her husband's name, takes his standing in
society, receives only his friends, is represented by him and becomes a
sort of domestic nonentity reflecting, if anything, her husband’s
religious, moral, and political views, rising or falling in the world
as his star shall go up or down.” She continues, “I had not even
noted this phase of society, and directly adapted the unwomanly habit
of pursuing my studies after my marriage, writing theses for literary
gatherings and sometimes for the press.”

Her married life ended some 4 ½ years later when Uriah McNall died,
leaving her at age 22 with a 3 year-old daughter (Lura b. 7/31/49) and
a meager estate deeply in debt. ($300) Without a liberal
education, she saw the future as a gloomy one, with no means to support
herself or her toddler.

As Jill Norgren notes in her excellent biography, “Belva Lockwood, the
Woman Who Would Be President,” “Tragedy … freed Belva Lockwood from a
woman’s shackles.” Belva saw education as the means to economic
stability and independence. Education would provide the tools
that she needed to find employment and earn a livelihood for herself
and her child. She sold the mill, paid off the debt, and,
gathering up the few dollars that she had, she enrolled in the Gasport
Academy - this, over the objections and harsh criticisms of father and
friends who thought it unseemly, even improper, for a woman to seek an
education. Completing her studies at Gasport, she sought
employment there only to be told that they had hired a man. Another
lesson learned in equal employment opportunity. Midway thru the
year, however, the man was fired and Belva hired. For the next
year and a half, Belva saved her money and, then, leaving her daughter
with her parents, and despite the criticism of friends, she set off on
the 60-mile trip to Lima, NY, to enroll in the Genesee Wesleyan
Seminary, at that time open to both men and women.

Educator

It was not long before she became aware that her male classmates were
preparing for enrollment in Genesee College which had already allowed
two women to matriculate. Despite the misgivings of the
preceptress of the seminary and the president of the college, she
graduated from Genesee College on June 27, 1857. During her
student days at the college, she attended a law class and, thus, was
planted the seed of her desire to become a lawyer. However, the seed
had to lay dormant while she faced the exigencies of supporting herself
and her child whom she brought back to Lockport together with her
sister, Inverno, and where she accepted a position as preceptress of
the Lockport Union School. During the next many years, Belva
worked in various schools and became active in statewide academic
organizations, always urging an education for girls that would allow
them to understand their rights and would allow them to become
gainfully employed.

During these years, she met and became friendly with Susan B. Anthony
with whose views on women’s rights she had a natural affinity.
Many years later, they would have a falling out over policy, strategy
and styles, but for now, they were friends and worked together to seek
a wider education for girls beyond the domestic arts.

But the seed of Belva’s interest in the law became restless to flower
and in 1866, she enrolled her now 16 year old daughter in Genesee
Wesleyan Seminary and took off for Washington, D.C., to see what she
could see and where she felt opportunity abounded.

Washington, D.C.

Washington was much to her liking. She was intrigued by
politicians and the power they wielded, fascinated by law and
lawmaking, and drawn by the challenges of the conflicting views of
Reconstruction. She saw limitless possibilities for herself, either as
an owner of a small school or - no matter that it was considered a life
unsuitable for a lady - a life in government or law. And, being
the pragmatist that she was, she embarked upon both paths at
once. She started her school, McNall’s Ladies Seminary and became
involved in an effort to open the American Foreign Service to
women. The latter effort failed, but it put her in touch with
other women - and men - of views similar to hers, people who
would encourage, educate, and support her in her desires - a far cry
from what she had experienced in NY.

In Washington, she embarked upon a lifetime in Women’s Rights
activism. A founder of the Universal Franchise Association
(suffragist) she became friendly with several women journalists, joined
the National Women’s Press Association and became a credentialed
journalist, a position that served her well in getting her into
meetings what would otherwise have excluded her as a woman.

Second marriage

A year after coming to Washington, she (37 years old) met Ezekiel
Lockwood (66 years old) who was 29 years her senior and whom she
married a year later. A Baptist minister and dentist by profession,
Ezekiel supported Belva’s desire to become a lawyer, encouraged her in
her continuing reading of Blackstone and Kent (then the lawyers’
bibles), shared her commitment to women’s rights, supported her
community and political activities, and not only accepted, but
expected, her equal contribution to the economics and finances of the
family unit. Together they worked as rental agents to supplement
their incomes and he taught her how to file and pursue Civil War
veterans’ pension claims.

Suffrage

During this time, nationally, the debate over the 15th amendment was
dividing women’s rights activists. The 15th amendment included the
following: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

There were those who felt strongly that women had waited long enough
and wanted a woman’s suffrage amendment, and those who felt equally as
strongly that such a position was a threat to the African-American
male's securing voting rights.

Belva, while supporting rights for freedmen, believed, as did Susan B.
Anthony, that women should not have to wait any longer for their
political rights.

Another cause Belva fought against was the discrimination against women
in the federal government. Federal government agencies employed few
women, and those it did employ were paid less than the men. Even
when they were doing the work of the next higher level of employment,
their pay did not go up.

Belva joined the National Womens Suffrage Association which also
championed her views on equal education and employment opportunities
for women. She took an active role in advancing these causes,
speaking, writing, attending meetings.

With the National Association’s (NAWSA) support, Belva became a
one-woman show. She set about lobbying Congress in private
meetings while drumming up support through a petition drive. She
learned how to compromise and how to use the press. Her efforts
resulted in a major victory. While no additional positions would
be created (that was her compromise), at least in the District, women
would be employed and they would be paid equally. A wrong had
been righted and precedent had been set.

Legal studies

Belva continued to read legal treatises but she was unable to find a lawyer willing to take her on as a intern.

In 1869, she and Ezekiel were invited to attend a lecture at the newly
established Columbia Law School whose president was a colleague of
Ezekiel and which, as a new school and a departure from the traditional
method of training lawyers, was looking for students. She
presented herself for matriculation and was ready to pay the fee. On
October 7, 1869, she received a terse note from the President of the
school advising her that her admission – at this time Belva was a 39
year old woman who had borne two children - would not be
expedient, as it would be likely to distract the attention of the young
men.

The following year, the new National University Law School was opened
in the District. Unlike Columbia, it invited a number of women,
Belva included, to attend classes. Whether the solicitation was
occasioned by economics or philosophy, in early 1871, Belva, her
daughter, Lura, by then fully grown, and thirteen other women
enrolled. However, upon the objections of the male students who
proclaimed they would not attend classes with any woman, the women were
given the option of completing their studies in a completely segregated
program. Most of the women caved in to the rancor and
vilification heaped upon them and left immediately; a few, including
Lura, stayed for a year. Only Belva and one other woman (Lydia
Hall) completed the course.

Of course, they expected to receive their law diplomas. But now,
the men refused to appear even on the same stage with women. Not
only would Belva not appear on the stage to graduate, but she would not
even get her diploma.

Belva knew that successful candidates of a graduating law class would
be presented as a group for admission to the D.C. bar. Without
that diploma she would be excluded.

Belva’s law practice up to that time had been limited to filing pension
claims and small claims in police courts, the latter similar to our
village courts today and for which admission was not
necessary. But, if she was going to have a successful,
full-scale law practice, she had to be admitted to the D.C. Supreme
Court bar.

Belva’s credo in life had been, if there is a thing to be done, just do
it. So she pursued another avenue. With the help of a male
friend she knew from the suffrage movement, the local bar examination
committee agreed to have a panel of local practitioners examine her
orally. The committee declared her to be proficient in the
law. But, anonymous letters sent to the court opposing her
admission, succeeded in blocking it.

She tried again, this time in a 3-day oral examination. The
results? Weeks passed. Nothing happened. She started a
court action. Nothing happened. Belva was furious. Ezekeil
was dying. She again faced economic disaster. It seemed the
woman whom the press was already calling “the irrepressible Mrs.
Lockwood,” was up against an impenetrable wall.

Journalism

Just when things seemed their bleakest, newspaper editor Theodore
Tilton offered her a temporary job, a three month tour of the South as
a canvassing agent and correspondent for his newspapers, NY Tribune and
the Golden Age, and in the process, do some campaigning for Horace
Greeley. Belva quickly accepted the offer, thinking that it might
launch a career as a paid journalist or a paid lecturer, either of
which could supplement her earnings as a
lawyer.

On this trip, Belva learned how to fend for herself: traveling alone,
making her own arrangements for accommodations, meals, public
appearances. She learned the art of meeting the public in a grass roots
campaign.

Twelve of her newspaper articles were published and, upon the
completion of the tour, she presented Tilton with an article called
“The Women of Washington.” The article was an exposition of the
accomplishments of women professionals in the Capital District and she
made her point: Washington was full of educated, sensible and
accomplished women deserving of the vote.

Law practice

Back in Washington, Lockwood resumed her law practice, such as it was,
succeeding in several matters in the police and justice courts.
She became known by judges and practitioners as practical, persuasive
and likeable. Several of the judges, as well as the Judge of the
Probate Court, notified her that she would be recognized as counsel in
any trial in their courts.

In late 1873, Belva again took up pursuit of her law degree. She
wrote a letter to President Ulysses S. Grant who, by virtue of being
President of the US, was also President of the National
University. Her letter (Sept. 3, 1873):

Sir,
You are, or you are not, President of the National University Law
School. If you are its President, I desire to say to you that I
have passed through the curriculum of study in this school, and am
entitled to, and demand my diploma. If you are not its President,
then I ask that you take your name from its papers, and not hold out to
the world to be what you are not.

Two weeks later, she received her diploma. Diploma in hand, she
again sought and was admitted to the D.C. bar on September 24,
1873. Smugly she wrote, “I had already booked a large number of
government claims, in which I had been recognized by the heads of
different departments as an attorney so that I was not compelled, like
my young brothers of the bar who did not wish to graduate with a woman,
to sit in my office and wait for cases.”

She continued her women’s rights activities, writing important legal
briefs ("white papers"), which were articulate, lucid and reasonable
constitutional arguments supporting women’s right to vote, to be
employed and to be paid equally. These white papers were used
extensively by women’s rights groups. Just as they were for
her clients, Belva’s arguments for her causes were always well
researched, articulate, persuasive and pre-emptive of opposing
arguments, impressing men as much as giving ammunition to women.

She came within one vote of winning election as a delegate to a
nominating convention to select a District representative to Congress,
a recognition of the stature and esteem in which she was already held
by Washington politicos.

She led a group of racially mixed women to City Hall to register to
vote in the District. One by one, each application was submitted
and rejected. This march and others on City Hall were intended to
get the attention of the press and keep the issue of woman’s suffrage
on the public radar. Belva had learned well the lessons of
keeping an issue on the front burner, of the importance of public
opinion and the astute use of the press.

Belva’s private practice was doing well. Her family in
residence now included her daughter, a sister, a son-in-law, a niece, a
great-niece and a grandson. All of the adult members of her
household worked in the office which was in the same building as their
home.

Court of Claims

Now a member of the D.C. bar, Belva still needed admission to the Court
of Claims. for she had an important case to file in that court.
It was 1874. With her District court certificate affirming that
she was a lawyer in good standing in that court, she asked a friend, a
member of the Court of Claims bar, to move her admission. At the
appointed time on April 1, he did so. A painful pause ensued from
the panel of five judges during which, Belva reported, every eye in the
courtroom turned to her and then the bench. Finally, there was an
exclamation from Justice Drake: “Mistress Lockwood, you are a
woman.”

“For the first time in my life,” Belva wrote, “I began to realize that
it was a crime to be a woman; but it was too late to put in a denial,
and I at once pleaded guilty to the charge.”

The matter was held over for a week. She again presented herself
at the appointed time in the following week. This time, the Chief
Judge exclaimed, “Mistress Lockwood, you are a MARRIED woman.”
Without missing a beat, Belva responded, “ Yes. May it please the
court, but I am here with the consent of my husband.” At which Ezekeil
offered the court a bow. To no avail. There was yet another
week’s adjournment, and then another, and another. Finally, the
case was assigned to Justice Nott to deliver the opinion of the
court. Three weeks later, in an opinion that took 3 ½ hours to
read, the court announced its position that “under the laws and
Constitution of the U.S., a court is without power to grant such an
application, and that a woman is without legal capacity to take the
office of attorney.”

What was she to do? She had the claims assigned to her so
that she would not be the attorney, but rather the claimant
representing herself, and she filed her case. The court summarily
refused to hear her and dismissed the case. This set the stage
for what was to become one of her most important achievements on behalf
of women.

US Supreme Court

Appeal from the District’s Court of Claims was to the United States
Supreme Court. The year before, 1873, the United States Supreme
Court had upheld the State of Illinois’ right to deny Myra Bradwell a
license to practice law for no reason other than her sex. But
this was not a state. This was the uniquely federal District.

She studied the Supreme Court’s rule for admission: “Any attorney
in good standing before the highest court of any State or Territory for
the space of three years shall be admitted to this court when presented
by a member of this bar.” Clearly, the rule applied to her. She
was an attorney; she was a member in good standing of the D.C. bar, and
would be an attorney for the required three years by the time her case
would be heard. She filed her appeal and asked a friend to move
her admission.

An amazed bench reserved decision and one week later rendered its
opinion that since it knew of no English precedent for the admission of
women to the bar, it declined to do so unless there was a clamor from
the public or a special legislation.

If they needed legislation, legislation they would get. For two
years Belva waged a single-handed battle to get special legislation
through Congress. During this time, her husband, her father, and
her sister-in-law all died. But none of that put her off her
course. She wrote the bill herself and got sponsors. By now
a veteran of the process, she testified before committees, lobbied
individual senators and congressmen, cajoled the bill’s sponsors, and
enlisted the support of male colleagues. “Nothing,” she wrote, “was too
daring for [her] to attempt.” She waged a relentless
campaign. And, at last, the press, finally interested in the
story, offered her their support. The bill admitting women to the
bar of the United States Supreme Court was passed and was signed into
law on Feb. 7, 1879. Three weeks later, March 3, 1879, Belva Ann
Lockwood became the first woman lawyer admitted to the bar of the
United States Supreme Court.

This was an enormous victory for women. Belva’s tenaciousness and
astute preparation opened to women virtually all the federal and state
courts in the country, at every level. She was hailed by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton as the Italian Portia, lauded by Myra Blackwell, and celebrated
publicly by both women and men.

Her practice thrived. She had equity cases, divorces,
injunctions, criminal defense, probate, debt collections,
contracts. Her family members continued to work in her office,
and she took in boarders.

Belva took pride in moving the admission of Samuel Lowery (1880) the
first freedman black lawyer to the Supreme Court. She took on
other women to read law under her tutelage. Together with one of
them, A.G. Riddle, they overcame the sex preclusion of becoming a
notary.

She became involved in Indian causes and represented Cherokee James
Taylor and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation to pursue extensive
Cherokee claims against the government, litigation that would last
almost to the end of her life, and which, although ultimately
successful, would cause her financial ruin.

The bicyclist

Generally, Lockwood walked to the various courts and public offices in
which she conducted the affairs of her clients. She observed that
male lawyers who had offices nearby had taken to bicycling and were
completing their business more efficiently. She shocked
Washington still further when, at age 51, she acquired a bicycle for
transport. Wags, cartoonists and newspapers took shots at her to
which she replied with amusement:
A simple home woman who only had thought
To lighten the labors her business had wrought
And make a machine serve the purpose of feet.
And at the same time keep her dress from the street.

Believing that “Young women should not marry until they were able to
support a husband,” she advocated for a national Domestic Relations Law
so that those laws could be reformed to give wives one half of a
household’s assets, to allow them to enter into civil contracts on
their own, and give them equal property rights. She advocated for
a new school curriculum for girls which would teach them how to protect
themselves and their children from economic dependency and exploitation.

In the spring of 1884, at age 53, Belva found herself the nominee of
the Equal Rights Party for President of the United States. She
had not solicited the nomination and, in an irony of history, she would
run against Grover Cleveland, another Western New Yorker.

Equal Rights Party Chair Marietta Stow and her colleagues had been
proposing women for political office for some time. Women had
been delivering stump speeches on major national issues such as
slavery, suffrage, temperance and reconstruction for years. Women
had run for local offices and had full suffrage in the Territories of
Utah and Washington; fourteen states allowed them to vote in school
district elections. Victoria Woodhouse had been the nominee in
1870 though she did not appear on any ballot and did not actively
campaign for office.

If the Women’s suffrage movement had been divided during the earlier
15th amendment debates, it was now fully splintered. Susan B. Anthony
staunchly supported the Republican party believing that ultimately they
would accept a woman’s suffrage plank notwithstanding that, in that
same year, they had rejected it. Another group insisted on
linking suffrage with temperance. Others, not. Still others believed
that best hope lay in getting individual states to act at the state
level. There were almost as many views as there were women and they all
dug in their heels.

Lockwood believed that the time had come for women to strike out on
their own for their own cause. She publicly challenged the
political leadership of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton. They had every right to support Blaine and the
Republican ticket, but she could not see any advantage in standing by
the party that does not stand by “us.” She wrote to Marietta Stow, “We
shall never have equal rights until we take them, nor respect until we
command it.”

Saying “I cannot vote but I can be voted for,” she mounted a
full-fledged, vigorous campaign, something that had not only never been
done, but had not ever even been envisioned. She had a platform that
included the following:
• Fair distribution of public offices to women as well as men
• Civil service reform
• Women on the bench including the Supreme Court bench
• Women prosecutors, notaries and in every vocation/profession
• High tariffs to protect/foster American industry
• Extension of commercial relations with foreign countries to promote friendship
• Establishment of an international high court of Arbitration to resolve commercial and political differences
• Citizenship for Native Americans and allotment of tribal lands
• Use of tariff revenues for veterans and their dependents
• Support for temperance advocates
• Nationalization and reform of family law making women equal economic partners
• Remaining public lands to go to people – not railroads
She went out on the stump giving speeches drawing large crowds wherever
she appeared. She drew over 500 people in Cleveland, distributed
broadsides, wrote articles, gave interviews, and publicly challenged
the other candidates to a public discussion of the issues. Her
campaign certainly caught the attention of the public as well as the
press. As a full-fledged candidate, she garnered editorial
support and her campaign was treated no better nor worse than
Cleveland’s and Blaine’s.

By election’s end, Belva Lockwood had received votes in at least nine
states, had electors pledged to her in at least seven states, had
garnered over 4,711 votes, and her treasury reported all expenses paid
and in the black by $125.00.

With no rules or controls of the ballot box at that time, the ballot
counters refused to count her ballots. But she had made a point.
Women were more than ready, willing and able to be serious players at
all levels of American politics including the highest office - and
certainly entitled to vote. She ran again in 1888, solidifying
the message.

Many years later, at age 84 and still not permitted to vote, she was
asked it there would ever be a woman in the presidency. She
replied, “I look to see women in the United States Senate and the House
of Representatives. If [a woman] demonstrates that she is fitted
to be president she will some day occupy the White House. It will
be entirely on her own merits, however. No movement can place her
there simply because she is a woman. It will come if she proves
herself mentally fit for the position.”

Following the election, Belva returned to her practice and went on the
lecture circuit. Susan B. Anthony had not approved of Belva’s
candidacies, her willingness to be out there, “in your face.” She
did not like the publicity Belva garnered, and maybe most of all, she
did not like that Belva asserted herself and made decisions
independently of Anthony and the organizations Anthony
controlled. In Norgren’s words, she was not an “obedient foot
soldier.”

The upshot was that Belva was frozen out of those women’s rights
organizations. Always a pacifist and bursting with energy, she
now turned her attention, her considerable talents, and her stature to
the cause of world peace. A member of the Universal Peace Union
for some twenty years, and a member of its executive committee since
1875, she lobbied for a Permanent International Tribunal of
Arbitration, was engaged in issues of social justice and foreign
policy, was a delegate to international peace conferences, gave counsel
to US Presidents, wrote papers and gave lectures. In short she
became a very public peace advocate. She advocated for the elimination
of capital punishment and government funded representation of the
poor. All the while, giving her voice and pen to vigorously
support the cause of women’s rights.

In 1909, Syracuse University, into which Genesee College had merged, in
recognition of her achievements and renown, awarded her an Honorary
Doctor of Laws. She also attended in 1893 the first national congress
of women lawyers who now numbered about 200 (NAWL) where she pressed
for a court of International
Arbitration.

At age 81, she was still maintaining a law practice, still arguing
cases, still lobbying for the vote and women’s rights, still sought out
by the press and public as an opinion leader. She was greatly
admired and her views and counsel were still highly valued.

On May 19, 1917, Belva Lockwood died, almost a pauper. Newspaper
obituaries praised her, acclaimed her as a pioneer in the women’s
rights movement, an advocate for peace, the first woman to be admitted
to the United States Supreme Court, and a candidate for
president. She is buried in the Congressional Cemetery where a
simple gravestone bears witness to an extraordinary life.

Belva Lockwood’s legacy

In the years after her death, several villages and ships, including a
Liberty Ship were named after her. In 1986, she was inducted into the
Women’s Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls. Stamps were issued in her honor,
and coins minted, and her spirit has been preserved in several
mastheads.

Beyond that, I agree with Jill Norgren when she writes, “… Lockwood had
an impact on American society that was at once tangible and symbolic,
and altogether striking in its breadth.”

The right of women to develop their potential, to be educated, to be
employed and have equal employment opportunity, to have equal pay, to
engage fully in a profession, to own property and to enter into
contracts even if married, to have an economic interest in marital
assets, the right to vote, the right to run for office, and the
establishment of a World Court were all impacted by Belva
Lockwood.

In my view, she left a legacy greater and much broader than that of any
other 19th century women’s rights activist. And, she left us a
challenge: “The glory of each generation,” she said, “is to make
its own precedents.”

Maryann
Saccomando Freedman is the first woman to be elected Presidnt of the
Erie County Bar Association and the first woman to be elected presidnt
of the New York State Bar Association.